


Oubliette

by ImagineMystrade



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Corporate culture AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2018-01-23
Packaged: 2018-08-15 09:04:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8050336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImagineMystrade/pseuds/ImagineMystrade
Summary: Finn Ranger is a hotshot tech executive who, upon getting downsized, finds himself put in the path of the woman he's spent years pretending he wanted to forget.





	1. The Big Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> Gonna try my hand at an honest-to-god chaptered story! This could be classified as an "erotic thriller" I guess, but the M rating is for later chapters.

Finn Ranger walked slowly into the cold, grey morning, his eyes veiled and a headache over his right eye that felt as if it had been nailed there. He stumbled a bit when he spotted an empty bench, barely reaching it before his legs gave out. As he collapsed on the bench and shut his eyes against the grey afternoon light, he thought of something Jessika Pava had said once – something about Thursdays being the most underrated day of the week.

_Think about it. Everyone bitches about Monday and Tuesday. People hate Sundays because it’s the last day before the work or school week. Everybody loves Fridays and Saturdays. Wednesdays are hump days, almost at the weekend. Thursdays get totally shafted. You’re a step closer to Friday than you were on Wednesday. On Thursdays, bars have the best drink specials – seriously, look it up! Thursday Night Football! Elementary comes on, on Thursdays –_

Finn loved Jessika like a sister, but now and forevermore, he’d be at odds with her views on the “brilliance” of Thursdays. For the rest of his life, he’d consider Thursdays to be the shittiest day of the week, no matter what was on TV or in his beer mug. At least, _this_ Thursday would go down as the worst day of his life.

Sighing and attempting to massage the pain out of his temple, Finn pulled out his cellphone and scrolled through his contacts, his thumb hovering over the name he wanted.

Poe had just gotten in a few hours ago and from the sound of things when he’d called him from the hangar, it had been a pretty rough night. But Finn knew he needed to vent. If there was ever a moment he needed a sympathetic ear, Jesus _fuck,_ was this the time.

Finn checked his watch, bit his lip and after a second more of indecision, pressed the button.

“Buddy!”

Poe Dameron’s voice was unfilteredly chipper, and Finn relaxed. He’d forgotten that Poe was starting a new route soon and his company always gave their pilots a week off beforehand to get their sleep schedules in order. Poe probably hadn’t even gone to bed yet.

“Hey, Poe. How’s it going?”

“Quietly, thank god. Whatever Snap’s taking to stop his snoring situation is working. Figured I’d hear from you later about tonight. Pava’s already talking up this Warehouse 41 place over in Serenno Square. It’s Leather Night - Snap's gonna be pissed that he left his good pair of chaps back at his dad's. What’s going on?  Early break?”

Finn sighed deeply. “No. Not an early break. A permanent one.”

“Huh?”

Finn lifted his head at the sound of chatter, footsteps and muted sniffling. A stream of people with varied expressions of shock on their face were headed toward the parking lot with brown boxes. One man, stoically marching behind the main cluster, stumbled a little and dropped his box on the ground. Pens, papers, a stapler, and what looked like a small desk refrigerator spilled out. No one turned at the noise and after looking down at the mess for a few seconds, the man simply stepped over it and continued on.

“Finn? You there?”

Finn looked away from the departing mass. His headache was getting worse. He wondered if there might be any Advil or something in the overturned box.

“The rumors were true. Vidian sold out.” Finn’s voice was dull. “We’ve been acquired. First Order Incorporated is history. Five whole departments got the axe. Including mine.”

“ _What_?”

“Yep. Three years of building this business from the ground up while Vidian went off to Coruscant on ‘fundraising’ trips, and this is my reward,” said Finn. “I’m downsized, man. Laid off. Fired. Whatever. And so’s my team.”

Poe swore softly. “Can they even _do_ that? I mean, you put your own money into it!”

“That’s all gone down the toilet. I feel like an asshole buying into Vidian’s shit about us _all_ being in this together and that this was _our_ company. Well, _he’s_ probably in Naboo Springs right now getting a tan while everybody else got the tired lecture from HR and an hour to clean out their desks.”

Finn rubbed furiously at his temple. “One of the guys down in D & M says he thinks Vidian’s the one who leaked the rumors of a buyout to All Things D so that he wouldn’t have to actually be here and tell us before the axe fell. Fucking bastard.”

“What’s this mean for you? You’re an exec. Don’t you get a little more consideration than ‘Yeah, thanks for working your ass off for three years, now get the fuck out and don’t steal any K-cup pods’?”

“A little. But not much more than that. It’s an acquisition. The new people could have kept the top-level staff if they'd wanted. They don’t want to.” Finn shrugged. “It’s not like we’re unionized or anything. People on my level and higher get a half-year’s pay for each year of service, half the yearly bonus we were scheduled to get, plus full medical for a year.”

“So that’s, what, a year and a half’s pay for you, plus part of your bonus? It’s … not bad. I mean, the whole thing is shit,” said Poe in a hurried voice, “but I mean, you’ll have a cushion until you find something new, and you will, buddy. You’ll probably have three new offers by the end of the day.”

Finn shrugged. He’d let a few unknown numbers that had come in while he’d been talking with HR go to voicemail, but the idea of another job was one he didn’t want to entertain at the moment. Opening himself up to new opportunities would mean accepting that everything he’d put into First Order had all been for naught, and he couldn’t do that at the moment. His head was just hurting now, but acknowledging that he’d spent three years of his life only to make Mar Vidian a very rich man would likely cause it to explode.

He shook himself out of those gloomy thoughts with difficulty. Poe was saying something.

“… And maybe even be your own boss. It might be for the best. I know it might not seem that way now –”

“– No. It doesn’t.” Finn sighed again. “But maybe it will, some day. I don’t know. I don’t really want to think about it right now. I just want to go back to bed and pretend this day never happened.”

“… Good idea. Rest up. Me and Pava and Snap’ll show you a good time. I’m here ‘til next Sunday. The two of us can spend most of that time getting drunk off our asses, starting tonight. Fuck Warehouse 41 – we’ll go to the west side. How does Kanjiklub sound?”

“Kanjiklub? Seriously?” Finn almost smiled. “Poe, you said ‘get drunk’ not ‘become comatose.’ I’m pissed off and depressed, but not _that_ pissed off and depressed.”

… _Yet._

Finn pushed aside that small word echoing in his ear and narrowed his eyes.

“Besides, I just sort of want to be on my own tonight. No offense. I just wanted to get this off my chest. But I’m not really up for going out anywhere.”

“But –”

“Besides, I couldn’t get drunk tonight even if I wanted to,” said Finn. “I’ve got work tomorrow. Bright and early.”

“You’ve … wait. What?”

“Yep. The new guys are mostly interested in Emerging Tech. They asked me to hang around for the next week to show their people the ropes.” Finn’s chuckle was devoid of any humor. “Well, they didn’t _ask_ me. If want my severance package, I _have_ to do it.”

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end.

“ _Fucking bastards_.”

“Yep.”

“Finn, seriously. Tell them to fuck themselves. It’s not right. If they wanted to know the best way to run to Emerging Tech, they would’ve given you a fucking _raise_ , not kicked you and your team out the door.”

“It’s business. It’s how these acquisitions work these days,” said Finn, shifting restlessly on the bench. “It’s just a week, and I’m literally just going to get them up to speed on some of the projects we’ve been working on, maybe try to put in a word or two for some engineers they should rehire, and that’s it. They get their company, or what’s left of it, I get my severance and I move on with life.”

“Doesn’t make it fair, Finn.”

“It _isn’t_ fair. I know that. But what can I do about it? Say no, get blackballed as ‘not a team player’ and screw my chances for another job in this town or anywhere else, most likely?” Finn raised his shoulders. “It’s fucked, but they’ve got me. Busting my ass for Vidian, I fell in the trap. There’s just one way out.”

“I _really_ think you need to get drunk tonight. A couple of Death Stars – okay, just one –”

“Mm.”

In his periphery, Finn saw a second wave of now-former FO employees emerge from the building. Turning his head, his eyes slid guiltily over the stricken expressions and settled on the slight figure of a person in a gray hoodie, struggling under the weight of a large box that seemed to be about to burst apart at the seams.

The figure couldn’t see over the large box, but managed at the last moment to avoid the mess left earlier by the man in the first wave of castoffs. The person staggered on for a few steps and then abruptly broke off from the larger body of departing people, went over to a bench and rested his box there, gazing out toward the marina and the mountains beyond.

“Okay? Finn? You still there, buddy?”

“Sorry, Poe, I’ve gotta go.” Finn got to his feet, his eyes trained on the grey form. “Tell the others whatever you want, but I’ll hang out tomorrow night. I promise. I’ll need a few drinks after whatever happens tomorrow morning. But maybe _not_ Death Stars.”

“Lightweight.” There was relief and affection in Poe’s voice. “Call me if you change your mind, okay? Or if you just need to talk again. Anytime. Or stop by. Or …”

“Thanks, Poe. I appreciate it, really.” Finn was hurrying over as the gray figure bent to take hold of the box again. “Catch you later. Thanks again for listening.”

He ended the call and shoved his phone into his back pocket just before he reached his target.

“Slip? Hey. You need a hand with that?”

The figure jumped a little and turned quickly. At the sight of Finn, the thin shoulders relaxed slightly and a young face shadowed under a too-large hood smiled.

“Hey! I'm good. It’s just bulky, not heavy. Was just checking out the view for the last time.”

He turned his head toward the bustling port in the distance. Tall ships and parasailers were silhouetted against the sky, and blue water touched the purplish horizon of a late fall afternoon.

“I’ll miss it. You?”

Finn looked at the cool expanse of blue and grey. He’d never really thought about it before, to tell the truth. He’d never been much of an “outdoors” or “nature” person. To him, water was water. Trees were trees.

“I suppose. Let me get one end of that.” Finn gestured toward the box. “It looks like its just barely hanging on by a thread. I’m on my way to my car, too.”

Slip beamed at him, shifting his weight and the position of his arms to allow Finn to grab the other side.

“Thanks, man. You’re always helping me out. I’m gonna miss that, too. I don’t think I’ll ever have another cool boss like you.”

Finn smiled a little as they took measured steps toward the parking lot. He’d never gotten a straight answer as to how someone called Arthur Trellis-Hepburn managed to get the nickname “Slip.” The man himself had told him that it was bestowed on him for his ability as a mimic, as he was able to _slip_ into almost any character and impersonate a ton of celebrities. It was an amazing talent, one that had brightened Finn’s workday many a time. How could you stay angry about vendor delays when you had Batman – the Kevin Conroy version, not the Christian Bale version, because _really_ – telling you dirty jokes, or get depressed about budget shortfalls with a pitch-perfect Rihanna crooning _Bitch Better Have My Money_ at your table in the cafeteria?

But others – many of them on Finn’s now-former team – said that Slip had acquired the nickname for an ability to dodge hard work, letting others carry the load for him.

Finn had to admit that Slip, so talented in so many ways, was not the best or brightest engineer he’d ever worked with. Over warm beer and bland potato salad at a company picnic some years ago, Slip had confessed to Finn that studying computer science had been his parents’ decree. He’d wanted to go to art school, major in animation, maybe found a studio and create and voice his own animated series. He would have, Finn reflected at the time, been good at that, too. Slip was an amazing visual artist and had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the history of animation. Slip had tried hard, but never quite fit in at FOI. But Finn hadn’t really minded helping Slip out from time to time. He was a good kid.

“This is some shit, huh?” Slip inclined his head toward the eerily silent building that seemed almost integrated now into the gray landscape. “Did you know about it before now?”

Finn looked at him sharply, but discerned only curiosity, not accusation, behind the words.

“Nope. I haven’t had a sitdown with Vidian since the Portech rollout back in March,” said Finn. “I read the rumors, though. They were everywhere. But they all sounded like bullshit.”

“Yeah. I still can’t believe it.” Slip sighed. “I was just getting back on track with my student loans, too. Funny how everybody ragged on Nines when he left and took that contract job with Google. Now he looks like a fucking genius.”

“Genius is never a term that could be applied to Nines, even at the best of times.”

Slip gave a low chuckle, then sighed.

“So what are you gonna do? Head to the beach for a couple of months? The headhunters probably started calling you right as the announcement went on Twitter.”

Finn shook his head. “I’m being pressed into service by the new guys. Transition team.”

Slip made a gagging sound. “ _Fucking hell_ _._ Let me guess – you don’t play ball, no golden parachute.”

“It’s more like a bronze parachute with a spray tan, but that’s the basic idea.” Finn gave an elaborate shrug. “But what do I care, right? It was just 200 grand of my own money and three years of me working my ass to a nub.”

“Sorry, man.” Slip clucked in sympathy. “And the new guys seem ruthless, too. Solo Enterprises. Heard of ‘em?”

“Nah. These multinationals are all the same to me.”

“The CEO’s a pretty young guy. Not even 40, I think,” said Slip. “Name's Ben Solo. Zeroes pulled up a feature the WSJ did on him last year. He was a media dude, came into some money, now his company’s been gobbling up the little guys all over the globe.”

“Yeah, well, makes sense,” said Finn as they approached Slip’s trim little Jetta. “Media and tech are sort of a forced marriage these days. Maybe he wants to use First Order to find the next Google. Or the next Twitter. Or the next Associated Press.”

“Then why do they need you to transition them? Why would they even buy the company?” Slip sounded puzzled. “You’re Emerging Tech! You actually _build_ shit. This guy was strictly weather-and-horoscope apps, and now he’s buying a whole tech company?”

“Maybe he wanted a bigger playground. Look at how Zynga got started.” Finn balanced the box on the bumper while Slip opened the trunk. “Whatever. It’ll be a week. I’ll show them around, make sure they have all the latest WiFi passwords, and whatever else they need to know.”

“Well, good luck,” said Slip, closing the trunk firmly. “I still think you should hit the beach after dealing with all this bullshit.”

“Eh, I’m not big on sand, honestly. But what about you?” asked Finn. “How about you head to some nice island somewhere for awhile?”

“Me?” Slip scoffed. “Yeah, we peons didn’t get _any_ parachute, just kicked out the plane with a couple of feathers in each hand. Two months’ salary as severance, and that COBRA shit until the end of the year.”

“That’s _it_?”

“Yep.” Slip looked grim. “So I have to get my LinkedIn going again. Hey, will you write me a recommendation?”

“Sure. Whatever you need. Feel free to put me down as a professional reference, too.” Finn held out his hand. “Good luck, man. Keep in touch. I’m not really doing Facebook anymore, but I might start a blog after this transition stuff is over.”

“Gotcha. Take care of yourself, Finn.” Slip’s handshake was firm and his voice was wistful. “Thanks for everything. You made coming into this place every day almost worthwhile.”

Finn held up his hand in a quiet farewell, watching Slip duck into his car and then maneuver into a line of departing vehicles that had the appearance of a funeral procession.

 

* * *

 

Ben Solo preferred trains to planes. But after a few long trips on a very inefficient rail service, his inner circle had grumbled, spurring him to bow to the inevitable and purchase a private plane with all of the trimmings, including a top-shelf flight crew that had once been in the private service of some royal family or other.

Still, he grit his teeth and sat rigid in his plush, fully reclining chair, ignoring the flute of champagne that one of the cabin crew had thoughtfully put on his tray. He couldn’t even be pacified by the thought that it was a relatively short trip. Those were the ones that statistically had the most problems.

He glanced around the cabin, ignoring the wispy clouds and the winking lights on the tips of the wings. Ben found that if he didn’t see evidence that he was actually up in the air, he could bear it better. Much of his staff was sleeping. It had been a long night for them. The contracts hadn’t been signed until after 3 a.m., and then there’d been the early morning press conference, which itself had been preceded by several conference calls with the shareholders. The chairman had been on every single call, and at the end of it all, Ben had felt like a washcloth that had been wrung out too much.

“Drink. At least _try_ to relax.”

Ben barely turned his head. He didn’t want to give Hux the satisfaction that he’d caught him off guard. It was bad enough that the chairman insisted that the corporation’s lead counsel travel with him everywhere. Actually acknowledging Hux’s faux-concern would be almost unbearable.

“I’ll have to talk to the cabin manager. I prefer Veuve Clicquot.” Ben vaguely gestured toward his untouched drink. “Dom gives me a headache.”

“Noted.” There was a long pause. “But the chairman loves Dom Perignon. Just a tip.”

Ben slowly dragged his eyes to meet the watery blue gaze of Armitage Hux.

“And? The chairman has a private plane of his own, doesn’t he? He can stock up on whatever he wants there.”

Hux actually laughed, which irritated Ben. With his pompous name and imperious manner, the man shouldn’t have been ridiculous - but he was. That carroty hair and the spray of freckles across his upturned nose did him no favors. Even in an expensively cut suit, Hux looked like a weedy, overgrown story-book character, and not like a person who’d graduated at the top of his class from the University of Arkanis’s highly rated law school.

“What’s really bothering you?” Hux raised a copper brow. “You’ve been going around with a face like a spanked arse since last week. What is it?”

“This acquisition.” Ben stared at the back of the seat in front of him. “Nothing about it makes any sense. This isn’t our area.”

“The chairman wants to expand. He thinks its time.” Hux looked at Ben with a quizzical expression. “And besides, this is what _you_ wanted.”

“Me?”

“You asked the chairman for a favor.” There was a significant pause. “A rather large one. He’s obliging you. I thought you’d be pleased.”

“I’m always pleased when the chairman grants me a favor.” It was an automatic response. Ben was not going to let Hux get under his skin. “But there were other companies. This one wasn’t especially profitable.”

“Which made it a good bargain. And there’s some decent work being done there, which makes it a good investment.”

“I’ve read the financials. Mar Vidian is a crook. He should’ve been locked up for embezzlement and fraud years ago.”

“Probably.” Hux shrugged. “He was likely smart enough to pay for good representation to insulate himself. In fact, I know he was. First Order’s lead counsel, Mitaka, was right behind me in rank at law school. Anyway, Vidian is not going to be _your_ problem, so why worry about it?”

Ben gave Hux a sneering glance. “That favor that the chairman is so magnanimously granting me has gotten me an earful from my mother. Not to mention my cousin.”

Hux looked curiously across the aisle. Ben’s gaze followed his. Yes, she was still sitting there in her window seat, eyes fixed on the sky, ostentatiously ignoring everyone. A stack of papers sat in her lap, looking as pristine as when they'd come out of the printer. Her champagne was untouched, too, but Ben knew it was more because Rey didn’t wish to imbibe during the flight. Unlike him, she loved to fly, and often said she thought being impaired by alcohol ruined the experience.

“She’ll come around,” said Hux in a low voice. “She’ll be in charge of the Emerging Tech department. It’s not a creampuff position, either. She’ll be able to shape the company to her will. Isn’t that what she wants?”

“You’re asking _me_?”

But Ben sighed and unbuckled himself. Stretching his long legs over Hux’s almost equally long legs, he gripped the back of the headrests as if his life depended on it and shakily made his way across the aisle. Dropping into the seat next to her, Ben allowed Rey to pretend to ignore him for a full two minutes.

“There will be another press conference tomorrow morning,” he said finally, frowning at her glass. The bubbles seemed to be going flat. Dom was shit.

“And?” She continued to gaze out the window.

“ _And_ it would be nice if you looked as if you were excited about this and not as if you were given a choice between this and a firing squad and figured this was the less messy of the two options.”

Rey Skywalker sighed deeply and rolled her eyes at her cousin.

“Could you chill on the dramatics at least until we get on the ground? I want to enjoy at least _one_ thing about all this.”

“Rey, I don’t understand you. I put my ass on the line here.” Ben paused. “I acquired a _company_ for you. It’ll be yours to run and do what you want with.”

“ _Chairman Snoke_ acquired a company,” she said through gritted teeth. “He fired all the people who poured their guts into their dream, and now he’s presenting you the burned-out husk and you’re giving it to _me_ as if it’s some great trophy!”

Ben shut his eyes wearily. “It’s not like that. I know you don’t agree with these acquisitions, but the chairman has his own way of doing things. I thought you’d be pleased about this. It’s been … a rough year. I wanted to do something to get your mind off things.”

Rey looked at Ben and her eyes softened.

“Ben, I appreciate that. I do." Her voice was almost gentle. "But this is just overwhelming. You’re expecting me to go from tinkering in a workshop to running an entire _company_. It’s just … a lot right now.”

“You’re selling yourself short, Rey,” Ben said warmly. “You’re just what this new company needs. And it’s not as if you’ll be thrown to the wolves on Day One. You’ll have help. We’ve retained the outgoing head of Emerging Tech to walk you through things.”

“Really? You’ve fired someone and expect that person to train the same people who just kicked them to the curb?” Rey shook her head. “Very smooth, Ben.”

“We needed someone to guide us,” said Ben with a shrug. “Mar Vidian, the man who started the company, is, er, unreliable, so we asked around for someone who would know the drill. It’ll only be a week, Rey, and you’ll have my staff to draw on if you think you’re getting the runaround from this guy.”

“Guy, huh? I did notice there didn’t seem to be many women in upper management.” Rey lifted her glass. “What’s the name of the person who’ll be showing me the ropes? Maybe I should get a gift and try to break the ice. A sort of ‘sorry my cousin bought out your company and is making you do this’ thing. You think a Cheesecake Factory gift card might do it?”

“Hmm … I don’t remember the man’s name.” Ben frowned heavily, ignoring her last remark. “Strange. It was an unusual name, but somehow I feel like it’s one I should remember. Hux?” He turned to the redheaded man. “Do you have the name of First Order’s head of Emerging Tech?”

“Yes. I remember because it seemed almost like a stage name,” said Hux as he signaled to one of the cabin attendants for a glass of champagne. “The name is Finn. Finn Ranger.”

“Right, right. I should remember that, eh? Rhymes with Ben.”

He laughed softly, but his laughter died when he glanced at Rey. His cousin’s eyes were wide and staring and the glass of champagne had stopped halfway to her lips.

“Rey? What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Did you say Finn Ranger?” Her voice sounded as if it were being strained through a sieve.

“Yes.” Ben turned his knees so that he could fully face Rey. “Do you know him?”

“I …” Rey shook her head like someone getting out of a fast car ride. “I … are you sure that’s the name?”

“Positive. This Ranger is supposed to be a tech hot-shot.” Ben was keeping careful watch on her in the corner of his eye. “In fact, we’re thinking of maybe retaining him as a consultant. We’ll see how the week goes first.”

Rey didn’t answer, and after awhile she seemed to realize that she was just holding her glass rather than actually drinking out of it and put it back down on her tray. Ben was starting to grow alarmed and would have said more, but the intercom came to life and the captain cheerily advised everyone to buckle up and prepare to land.


	2. The Soft Hello

When his alarm went off the next morning, it took Finn a few moments to remember what had happened the day before. When it all came back to him, he groaned softly, squeezed his eyes as tightly shut as he could, and after running through every curse word in every language he had in his vocabulary, declared himself ready to face the day.

He sat for a moment on the edge of his bed, looking out of the window at the city’s center. He wondered if maybe it would just be better for everyone involved if he told the new owners of First Order Incorporated “thanks, but no thanks” about the transition deal.

He’d given that point a lot of thought the night before. After downing a few beers and fending off the phone calls of well-meaning friends – Poe had spread the news, but had, at least, kept others from crowding in on him – he’d listened to some of his voicemails. Two were outright offers of employment by two of FOI’s fiercest competitors. The third call was from the head of an angel investment company Finn had dealt with in the early days with Vidian who thought Finn would be perfect to head up a project that his company wanted to invest in.

Finn had pondered the offers, realizing that with little fuss and muss, he could be relatively gainfully employed again in two weeks’ time. What did he owe First Order, anyway? Vidian had lied to him repeatedly, and there was the matter of that 200k that he’d never see again. If anything _they_ owed _him_. The new guys could find their own way to the executive bathrooms and download the newest menus for the best takeout places in the area, and leave him the fuck out of it. Yeah, it would be a sizeable chunk of change – in the form of his severance package –  left on the table, but in the grand scheme of things, wouldn’t it be better to make a clean break?

Finn weighed this as he gazed out at the greys and blacks and whites that made up the city’s skyline and the cool sweep of the marina where the same tall ships and parasailers dotted the landscape. He thought of Slip and the other engineers on that level who would have to subsist on two months’ pay and unemployment until they could get something resembling a good job.

It was a different job climate in the city, now. A few years ago, a downsized engineer could have 15 amazing offers in hand before leaving the building. Thinking about the cortege of stricken and gloomy faces that had filed out, Finn knew that those people had realized that the game had changed and they were in danger of being left on the sidelines. And here he was, being extra as hell over a week of non-work and ass-kissing?

Finn sighed, shaking himself into full wakefulness.

He couldn’t do it. As much as he knew he could monetarily afford to tell Solo Industries to fuck itself, Finn knew he couldn’t do it. Even if Vidian had broken his word more times than he could count, he wasn’t going to stoop to that level and break his.

Finn showered quickly, dressed in a navy suit that he thought made him look like a Congressional intern, and sat down to a quick breakfast during which time he pulled up on his tablet the Wall Street Journal article that Slip had mentioned on the CEO of Solo Industries. He figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least know what he was walking into.

But the article wasn’t very illuminating. A dark-haired man artfully brooded at him from a picture that looked like it had been yanked from TMZ as Finn read all about Benjamin A. Solo, 35, a native of D’Qar Province who had attended all the “right” schools, was from an influential family that he preferred not to discuss, had worked as a reporter at some online blog for awhile before striking out on his own, and was “very sure that [Solo Industries] could help change the world.”

The article made sure to mention that Ben Solo lived in a “delightfully sprawling loft in downtown Coruscant Square,” and Finn counted at least five times where Solo’s singleness was breathlessly reported, but there wasn’t much in the story that struck Finn as being markedly different from features about that sporadically appeared about other tech CEOs of Solo’s age, gender and racial background.

Finn studied Ben Solo’s angular face, not seeing much of the “ruthlessness” that Slip had mentioned. Solo had a very distinctive look, a lot like Benedict Cumberwhoever. If he hadn’t known what the man actually did for a living, Finn wouldn’t have batted an eye if someone had told him that Ben Solo was playing Hamlet in some off-Broadway venue somewhere.

There were, however, two things of interest that caught Finn’s attention. The first was that Solo Industries appeared to be a subsidiary of a much larger conglomerate – Galactic Empire Ltd., which was headquarted in Coruscant Circle and helmed by one Leland Snoke, described as a “reclusive billionaire who rarely leaves his castle-like villa in the remote Kamino Mountains.”

Apparently, Galactic Empire had its finger in a lot of pies, but Solo Industries was the recipient of most of its resources, having expanded its portfolio of acquired companies almost threefold in the past two quarters.

And that was the second thing that gave Finn pause. Not so much the rate of acquisitions: he’d known enough big-time conglomerates to understand that buying up companies was like eating potato chips – hard to stop at just one.

But it was the _type_ of companies that Solo Industries – under the umbrella of Galactic Empire Ltd. – had been scooping up. They were generally small to mid-size startups. No worldburners, but many of the companies had a few ideas that had made modest ripples in the market.

In fact, Finn had known people who’d worked at WeSeeU and Mage, the last two firms Solo Industries had bought. The people at WeeSeeU had been working on some sort of next-gen GPS that could be used in emergencies to track down active shooters or terrorists, and Mage was a mid-level gaming firm that had a few hits on mobile, but nothing amazing.

Finn frowned over his coffee. Slip was right – Solo Industries had been confining itself to tech firms that operated in the virtual and social spaces. First Order was the first company it had bought that manufactured hardware, making it the outlier in a hodgepodge of companies that had been scooped up by the handful. And that seemed to imply that First Order had something specific that had caught the eye of Solo Industries …

He brooded on that point on his perfunctory drive into the city, maneuvering by rote around the shuttles that disgorged tech workers all along the corridor into the city center, making the same turn to get off on the same off-ramp as he’d done for the past three years. It was only when he reached the office that he was startled again into reality. The First Order parking lot was deserted, save for three midnight-black Caddy XT5s parked in the section marked for “Executives Only.” On each of the bumpers was a stenciled red S.I. and a little squiggle above the letters that looked a little bit like a crown.

Finn snickered and shook his head. The new guys had style, at least.

He entered the front doors, feeling automatically for his ID to swipe at the turnstiles. His hand paused halfway to his pocket as he suddenly remembered that his card likely wasn’t any good any longer.

That thought drifted off, however, when he looked over at the security turnstiles leading to the offices and saw that he wasn’t alone.

Finn had heard the term “striking” used to describe women before, and he’d always assumed the word was used to avoid using a less … complimentary term. But the woman staring placidly at him from just in front of the turnstiles was the very definition of “striking.”

She was well over six feet tall and as solidly built as a champion weightlifter – pure muscle from head to toe. Her physique, clad in a black uniform accentuated with silver buttons and emblazoned on the collar with a sort of sunburst symbol inside a hexagon, only served to emphasize a delicate, almost doll-like face and the sort of pale blonde hair that couldn’t be replicated from a bottle.

Finn thought the woman almost terrifyingly beautiful, but there was something in her blank expression that gave him pause, and he straightened his suit jacket to buy a little more time. It didn’t quite work; she continued to stare at him, waiting for him to speak, and Finn fidgeted with a button before bowing to the inevitable.

“Hi.” He cleared his throat, not liking the slight squeak in his voice. “I’m Finn Ranger. I was told to be here at 9 o’clock to talk transition with the team from Solo Industries.”

The woman stared at him a second more before nodding once, quickly.

“You have identification, Mr. Ranger.” It wasn’t a question.

Finn reached for his wallet as he pondered the woman’s voice. It was gentler than he expected and slightly accented. He was sure he’d heard it before, but couldn’t quite place it.

The woman scanned his driver’s license for less than a second before giving another quick head dip.

“Thank you.”

She waited for him to put his wallet away. Only when it was gone did she sweep a silver card over the turnstile sensors, which drew the gates back for entry.

“If you’ll follow me, please?”

As Finn followed the woman through the dim corridors, he heard the hum of machinery and distant knocking of hammers and other assorted tools. He glanced over at the open-plan area where many of First Order’s former workers had toiled and saw a number of contractors busily remaking the space.  that the tiny dividers that had separated cubicles were being torn down and many of the desks had been ripped out.

Finn wondered what the office would look like after Solo Industries had remade it in its own image. Maybe it would just be one big room with everyone sitting in a circle, staring at each other. Then again, Yahoo had tried something like that and look at where that had brought them.

They passed through the portico that led to the executive wing. Finn stolidly refused to look to his left, where his old office sat empty and in shadows, and followed the woman to the other end of the hallway. The door to Mar Vidian’s office was ajar, and Finn snickered beneath his breath. It had been some time since Vidian’s office door had been opened. He was gone so often that some of the other execs grumbled at the injustice of the best corner office in the place going to waste.

The woman stopped and knocked quietly on the door, entering before any acknowledgment was given. She filled the doorway, so Finn couldn’t see much of what – or who – was inside, but he could hear her solemnly sonorous voice say “Finn Ranger,” like one of those people in old-time movies announcing a late arrival to a fancy party.

Then she stepped aside. Finn swallowed hard, and walked in.

Two heads lifted at his entrance. Finn was able to pick out Ben Solo immediately. He looked almost exactly like the picture in the WSJ profile, though in real life, his face seemed more angular and Finn wondered why the smattering of moles across his face had been airbushed out. The man next to Solo had bright orange hair and the sort of vaguely dissatisfied expression that Finn suspected was habitual.

There were stacks of paper in front of them and a slight aroma of coffee hung in the air. Just from the state of the room, it seemed like they’d all been there for a while, but Ben Solo’s smile was warm and genuine as he stood up and crossed the room in a few long strides.

“Mr. Ranger? Ben Solo. Welcome and thanks for coming.” His handshake was the sort of firm, brief affair that exuded confidence. “Great to meet you.”

“Good to meet _you_ , Mr. Solo. Wish the circumstances could be different, but that’s life in the Valley.”

“Indeed. And call me Ben, please.” Ben Solo gave him a small grin. “OK, so introductions: You’ve obviously already met Annabel Phasma, the chief of security for Galactic Empire, Solo Industries’ parent company.”

Finn’s eyes slid over to the blonde woman, who stood ramrod straight, staring ahead, like a sentinel.

“A pleasure, Mr. Ranger.” Her eyes settled on him for a moment before returning to gaze at the view of the marina. “Please call _me_ Phasma.”

Finn swallowed hard. All righty then.

“And this is Armitage Hux,” Solo said, indicating the seated figure. “Galactic Empire’s chief counsel and head of legal.”

The redhaired man didn’t make any move to stand or shake hands, giving a somewhat sharp nod.

“Mr. Ranger.”

“Mr. Hux.”

The man made a wry face. “I prefer just _Hux_ , actually.”

Finn gave a solemn nod of acknowledgment. With a name like _Armitage_ , Finn could understand why.

At the edge of his vision, Finn could see Ben Solo not bothering to hide a smile, at which Hux scowled darkly. Finn internally rolled his eyes. Great. A entire week of dealing with two Type As and their passive-aggressive dick-measuring contest.

“We’re having breakfast catered in,” said Solo. “It should be here in a few minutes. Hux and I came straight here from the press conference and have been mainlining coffee most of the morning. Did you watch any of the press conference, by the way?”

Finn guiltily remembered that he’d _meant_ to tune into the livestream but he’d completely forgotten about it.

“I wasn’t able to catch it,” he said in what he hoped was a breezy, nonchalant voice. “We only have a week and I know your team wants to hit the ground running, so I spent the morning preparing a presentation of First Order’s top projects. I arranged them in order of complexity, so that your people can take their pick on which to prioritize.”

Solo’s brows lifted. He looked startled, but impressed.

“Excellent. It’s Friday, so today we planned on just having a short talk, introduce ourselves, and set an agenda for Monday to last the week, but I like the initiative. When you came in, Hux and I were going over your CV. To say that we were knocked on our asses is an understatement. You’ll be quite an asset to us as we move forward.”

“True,” said Hux, looking at a sheet of paper that Finn assumed was said CV. “In fact, we were wondering why someone with your credentials wasn’t running a tech company of his own.”

“I _was_ ,” said Finn steadily. “Your company just bought it.”

There was a minute of strained silence, and Finn wondered if Phasma was going to be escorting him out back the way he’d come.

But Ben Solo snickered and Hux grinned. Even a small smile curved Phasma’s lips.

“What’d I tell you?” Ben looked at Hux, still chuckling. “Forgive us, Mr. Ranger … Finn … is it all right if I call you Finn?”

“Sure.”

“Great. Well, Finn – Hux and I were having a look through some of the paperwork on First Order’s former CEO, Mar Vidian.” His mouth twisted into a smirk. “It left a lot to be desired, let’s just say. We figured there had to be a … power behind the throne, so to speak. Were you and Vidian close?”

“Only in the business sense, I guess.” Finn thought it was prudent to play down how much of an asshole he thought Mar Vidian was. “I met him after he gave a TED Talk on real-world applications of nanotechnology. I was in the last year of my master’s program and I had just presented a paper on nanotech at a conference in Hosnian Falls a few months earlier. I introduced myself to him after he got off stage, and it turned out he knew one of my professors at the University of Yavin. We kept in touch, and after I graduated, he told me about an idea he had for a company specializing in consumer goods embedded with nanotech. He said he needed partners - the business plan looked promising. And there I was.”

Finn gave a somewhat self-deprecating grin. “And here I am.”

Solo gave him a sympathetic smile, but Hux looked confused.

“Partner? Do you mean that in a figurative sense, or did you actually invest money in this operation? You weren’t listed on any of the financial disclosure documents.”

“Yep. Gave him two-hundred thou and change.” Finn swallowed hard. The words were almost sticking in his throat. “I sold an idea to Colsys – can’t really give details, because I signed a nondisclosure. But they gave me a decent amount of change for it. I was thinking about using it for seed money, but Vidian came around and I thought it would be a safer bet buying into First Order.”

“So you’ll receive a cut of the buyout proceeds then?”

“Uh, no.” Finn raised his shoulders. “About a year in, I told Vidian I didn’t really like sitting in an office all day, ripping apart other people’s ideas. I missed getting my hands dirty. I wanted to be in the labs, creating. He said that was fine, but that we’d have to dissolve the partnership, since our contract didn’t have any clauses that would keep me, as a partner, from developing my own ideas while on company time and either keeping them for myself or setting up a shell company to sell them to the highest bidder. So we severed the partnership and he bought me out for a consideration.”

Hux actually winced. “A _consideration_? Did you have lawyers look at the paperwork before you signed anything?”

“Yeah. Legal walked me through the contract, and –”

“No, no I mean your _own_ lawyers.”

“No.” Finn felt his cheeks grow hot. “We were having cash-flow problems because an investor pulled out, so I wasn’t going to ask for a lot. I didn’t really care about the money. A bump in pay and a travel allowance suited me fine. I just wanted to get back to work – real work. Besides, Vidian was my partner … and I thought he was my friend. I didn’t think I needed to check behind him or that he was stiffing me.”

A pained glance passed between Ben Solo and Hux. Finn sighed.

“So, how much did he take me for? The terms of the sale were ‘undisclosed’ yesterday.”

Solo paused a moment before saying, “We bought First Order for just a shade north of $80 million.”

“And your initial investment,” Hux continued, “represents one-fifth of the total startup cost. So had you remained in your partnership with VIdian, you would have received one-fifth of the purchase price, less taxes, of course.”

Finn eyes were round with shock. Eighty _million_ dollars? First Order had been purchased for roughly 80 times its initial cost. That was Google territory, or damn near. What in the hell did Solo Industries see in the company that they’d pay out the ass like that? Vidian probably would have taken half that!

But Solo and Hux took his stunned silence for utter shock at the money he’d missed out on. And thinking about it, the idea that Vidian had fucked him out of $16 million …?

“Well, shit,” said Finn weakly, feeling for a chair. “That’s, uh … yeah. Definitely not gonna make _that_ mistake again.”

“But there is an upside,” said Hux. “We’ve gone over the financials with a fine-tooth comb. Mar Vidian had some _very_ creative accounting practices. Several government agencies are going to want to have a chat with him about those, and since universal extradition was signed into law, he’s not going to be able to hide out on some island until the heat is off.”

Finn looked from Hux to Solo and back again.

“Hold up. Are you saying Vidian did illegal things _here_? With the company?”

“Extremely. He was using it as a personal piggybank in some ways,” said Hux. “So take comfort in the fact that when the law catches up to him - and it will - you’ll not be held liable since you dissolved your partnership voluntarily. You lost many millions of dollars, true, but you at least won’t be sharing the same jail cell Mar Vidian will find himself in one day.”

Finn was speechless for a few seconds. Now Vidian’s frequent “absences” and his inattention to the day-to-day with the company made sense. He felt foolish – all those years and he’d not realized that he’d been part of a long con? Was that why Vidian had come to him in the first place? He saw a potential dupe – with money, too – who’d do all the work and ask no questions?

“Don’t feel as if you should have known it all along. Men like Vidian are smooth grifters,” said Solo, startling Finn. It was as if the tall man had read his mind or something.

“They know enough to seem credible, and they have a way of dodging most consequences for absurd amounts of time,” Solo went on. “Hux is right, though. It will catch up to him in the end. Meanwhile, you’ll be well on your way to having that company that you’ve dreamed of. We’re acquiring a lot of real estate in the tech sector, and having a man like you in the fold would be a big feather in our cap.”

Finn gave Solo a skeptical look. “That sounds like a job offer, Ben.”

Solo grinned toothily at him. It wasn’t as unsettling as it probably should have been.

“Well, we _do_ want to discuss retaining you as a consultant after the transition period,” Solo said. “While I plan to stay on here as CEO, the real meat of First Order – we’re keeping the name, by the way, it’s catchy – is the emerging tech department. Which will be headed by my cousin.”

Finn felt the slight hope that Solo was about to offer him his job back melt away. He was a little surprised. Solo was more on the ball than he’d expected, and it was something of a shock that Solo would do the whole nepotism deal. Putting family members in key positions was seen as extremely bad for business.

“So your cousin has an interest in new technologies?”

“That’s an understatement! She’s been tinkering in my dad’s workshop since she was a kid.” Solo sounded quite proud. “Always putting something together and taking things apart.”

_Right. A complete amateur, in other words. Whoever this guy is probably thinks getting a coffee grinder to operate is a big deal._

Finn’s shoulders slumped. “Nice.”

“She probably would have gotten along without college, but my mom insisted," Solo said. "And she did well. More than that, actually. Brilliant. She graduated at the top of her class. Double major in mechanical engineering and aeronautics, focusing on unmanned aircraft systems operations.”

Finn’s head slowly rose. “Mechanical engineering and aeronautics?”

“Yes.” Solo glanced down at him quizzically, his mouth bending at the corners. “Is there something wrong?”

“Uh, no.” Finn felt his throat construct. “It’s just that I know only of one school that offers that as a double-major – the Naboo Institute of Technology.”

“Yes. That’s where she attended.” Solo tilted his head. “Did you know many people at N.I.T.? It does compete with your alma mater for top tech students.”

“Um … yeah. I mean, a few have come through First Order,” said Finn, his neck growing warm. “But I didn’t get to know many of them that well. They weren’t in my department.”

“Oh, I see. If they’re fairly young, it’s possible that Rey might know them. She graduated only two years ago.”

Finn stared up at Solo, sweat popping out along his brow.

No. _No._

“Rey.” His voice was a foreign sound in his ears. “Not Rey … Skywalker?”

Ben pursed his lips, and his eyes darkened. But before he could say anything, a soft voice behind Finn's chair made itself heard above the roaring in his ears.

“Hello, Finn.”


	3. Mad About Her (Part I)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for joining me! The next four chapters are going to alternate points of view between Finn and Rey, so the action won't be ... linear, really. I hope it works, but I'm keen to answer any questions about anything that isn't clear.

Rey stared at Finn, who had, after her greeting, spun around in his chair and regarded her with the sheer terror and dread that usually accompanied the realization that one was about to be flattened by an oncoming train. But the expression was there only for a moment before it was submerged into a bland, professional smile of welcome.

He stood and extended his hand.

“Rey Skywalker. Wow. It’s been … a while.”

Rey glanced down at Finn's outstretched hand in slight bemusement, hoping to ease the tension in the suddenly airless room with a joke.

“What, no hug? I’m not opposed to them anymore, you know.”

There was a flicker in Finn’s eye that lifted Rey’s heart for just a moment – but it was gone again, smothered under that same overpolite grin. He still held his hand out.

Biting her lip, Rey accepted the rebuff and pressed her hand into his, their palms gliding over each others' in almost a caress.

The spark flashed in Finn’s eye again, longer this time – but it, too, faded away soon enough.

Rey hated herself for glancing down at his hand. His left hand. Specifically, the ring finger on said hand. She hated herself even more for doing an inward dance of joy at the lack of any sort of ring on said finger. _Not_ that it meant anything, of course. He could still be in a relationship, but just not married. Or married and not wearing a ring, though that was a little bit … iffy. Finn didn’t seem the type to her to be married and go ring-less.

 _Not_ that it would make a difference either way, in her case, she knew. Finn had made it quite clear long ago that anything that could have been between them – _had_ been between them – was all over, after the … _incident._

“It’s good to see you again, Finn. It really _has_ been a long time.”

She pretended to think. Pretended not to notice that in the amount of time that they’d gone without crossing paths, he still was _still_ hot as all hell.

“Six years, right?”

“Just under. I thought I spotted you at a showcase in Upper Dantooine, but I was on my way to a workshop and really couldn’t get a good look.”

Rey just nodded. She hadn’t been in Upper Dantooine in nearly a year, but she also knew that even if she had been, Finn would have rather clawed his own eyes out than approach her. Even now, his body language was stiff, wary, closed off. The tension of keeping up the polite façade was even beginning to show in the practiced smile he wore, now trembling at the edges.

She was not unaware of the others in the room. Phasma was looming quietly on the sidelines, missing nothing, and Hux was looking from her to Finn and back again as if he were spectating a tennis match. Rey’s face flushed under the scrutiny. She could read nothing in Finn’s face but she was sure he knew that they were being watched.

Rey thought that over, and she shivered. No. Phasma and Hux was watching _them_. But Ben was watching _her_.

Ben Solo smiled slowly when she looked at him. He was leaning against the gleaming mahogany table, arms crossed, eyebrows high.

“Well. So you two know each other.” This was delivered in a drawl that reminded Rey so much of Uncle Han – well, what she remembered of him. “That’s … fun.”

Rey glared at Ben, but Finn, confused at the sarcasm in his voice, turned toward Ben with a puzzled smile taking place of the plastic one.

“Yeah. Uh, we went to school – college – together,” said Finn.  “We were in different majors, though. But most of my classes were in the Mothma Building, where the Aeronautics Lab was. So Rey and I ran into each other …”

Finn’s voice trailed off into a sort of awkward throat-clearing. Rey’s face warmed, and she wondered if he’d cut that train of thought because he remembered that afternoon they’d spent making out in one of the cleanrooms in the basement of Mothma.

Ben snickered beneath his breath, as if he realized just what Finn _wasn’t_ saying. But Hux was frowning, looking at Finn with undisguised skepticism.

“Wait a minute: According to your CV, you graduated – summa cum laude – from the University of Yavin with a bachelor’s degree in computational science and system design, and received a master’s degree there two years later in social and engineering systems. Can you explain why you don’t have N.I.T. on here?”

“Why would I?” A note of wariness had crept into Finn’s voice and Rey fancied she could feel him glance at her out of the corner of his eyes. “I transferred from N.I.T. to UY, and graduated from there, so that’s what I put down.”

“Yes, but if that’s accurate, that means you would have transferred from N.I.T. _after_ your junior year.”

“Yeah. That’s what I did.” Finn glared at Hux. “Problem?”

“Well, no. It’s just unusual. Is there a reason why  –”

“Wi-fi!” Rey blurted, her face going a painful scarlet.

She smiled nervously when all eyes turned to her.

“The … wi-fi in this building is off. That’s why I came down here. I wasn’t sure who to talk to about –”

“It’s off?” Ben’s face shifted from indulgent amusement to concern. “Are you sure? I’ve been emailing from my phone all morning.”

“Then you’re probably using your data,” said Rey. “I was trying to set up in the conference room so that Chairman Snoke can join us on Skype, but nothing was working. I finally realized that it was because the wi-fi access point we were given is offline.”

She risked a look at Finn. “Could there be an outage somewhere? I’m positive that I entered the password correctly.”

“Huh. That’s … wait. I think I know what might be going on. There were a few people in marketing who worked from home and they’d tunnel in with an external VPN,” said Finn. “After the buyout, systems probably shut everything down so that no one outside the company could sign in remotely. They probably just forgot to flip it back on again after yesterday’s … uh, excitement.”

Finn looked over at Ben Solo. “The guys down in Mission Control – our internal IT department. Are any of them still around?”

“All of them are. Most of the support staff is. They’re unionized.” Ben looked slightly chagrined. “Though they all obviously were very good at their jobs, so we’re happy to still have them.”

“OK, great. That means Giz is still around. She runs the place.” Finn turned to Rey. “I’ll introduce you to her. She’ll get everything up and running in no time, and she’ll be a real asset to you in some of the small stuff that goes wrong around here sometimes.”

“Actually …” The drawl was back in Ben’s voice. “Would you terribly mind taking care of that yourself for now, Finn, and perhaps making the introductions later? I want to have a short powwow with the team before we get into the meat of the day.”

Rey narrowed her eyes at her cousin, not at all liking the sound of _that_. But Finn only shrugged.

“No problem. The whole team won’t be in until after 9:30 anyway.”

“Phasma will accompany you down there.”

Finn laughed a little. “I still know how to get there – unless you’ve moved Mission Control over from the East Wing.”

“No, everything on that side of the building is intact. But I’m afraid I’ll have to insist on having you escorted.”

“ _Escort_ me?” Finn laughed again, but it sounded pretty hollow. “Are you being serious?”

“I’m afraid so. Please don’t take offense, but … you aren’t an employee any longer, and for security reasons, Chairman Snoke is insisting that non-employees be escorted to areas of the building that may contain … sensitive material.”

“Oh. Right. Wouldn’t want _that._ ” Finn’s voice held a knife’s edge. “But just so you know, since I’m the one who designed a lot of that _sensitive_ _material_ , there’s not much I haven’t seen or don’t already know. I don’t have to _steal_ anything.”

Rey wished she could sink into the floor. She knew that the last part had not been aimed at Ben, but at her. When she turned her eyes to Finn, she was staring at his back as he strode quickly to the door, Phasma on his heels. In another second they were both gone, their footsteps echoing down the hallway.

Rey turned a furious gaze to her cousin. Ben met her eyes coldly, his arms crossed.

“Was that _really_ fucking necessary? What happened to ‘making everyone feel welcome’?”

“Yes, it _was_ necessary. It’s a direct order from Chairman Snoke. End of discussion. And I don’t recall any conversation about making people feel welcome.” Ben’s voice was colorless. “Are we going to have a problem here, Rey?”

Rey met his stare. “I think we already _have_ one, Ben. But not on _my_ end.”

She was only vaguely aware of Hux gathering some papers, murmuring something about having to check in with Chairman Snoke’s PA before the meeting began. Solo’s eyes briefly moved past her head to mark Hux’s departure, but returned to her face when the door shut quietly behind them.

“Okay. You need to tell me what this is all about,” he said in a soft voice that was subtly menacing even in its gentleness. “What’s going on between you and this Ranger dude?”

Her hands bunched into tight fists. “That’s none of your business.”

“Wrong, Rey. It _is_ my business. _This_ ,” he waved his hand around the office, “ _is my fucking business_. I _own_ it, Rey. I kept Ranger on because I thought he’d be a help to you, but judging by the body language between the two of you, there’s some seriously bad blood there. I should’ve known … you were acting strange when I brought up his name yesterday on the plane. I asked you if you knew him. You lied to me.”

“I _didn’t_ lie!” Rey’s eyes glinted. “I didn’t say _anything_.”

“A lie of omission then.” He stalked to the head of the table and picked up one of the papers Hux had left behind. “He transferred out of a top-ranked engineering program after his junior year. Why? Not that UY is a low-rate school, but leaving when you only have one year to go? That makes no sense.”

For the first time since the conversation began, Rey averted her eyes.

“He … had his reasons.”

“Uh huh. And I’m sure you know what those reasons are.” He paused. “Were _you_ the reason?”

Rey’s cheeks burned. She still couldn’t look at her cousin.

“It’s not … what you think. It wasn’t like that – exactly.”

“Then tell me what it _was_ – exactly.”

“No!” She forced herself to face Ben Solo’s glower. “I’m not going to go through this again! Re-live it all over again. I don’t care what you say!”

Ben Solo’s entire face changed. “Re-live? What … what do you mean by that? Did something happen? Did this guy … hurt you? Rey? Did this Ranger _do_ something to you? Is that why he ran –”

Her eyes went huge when his implication became clear.

“ _God_ , Ben, have you … no! No of course he didn’t _do_ anything to me! And stop calling him _Ranger_ , like he’s some … some … inanimate object! His name is Finn! _Finn_.”

Rey was breathing heavily. Solo’s expression didn’t lose its overlay of concern, but the dangerous glint in his dark eyes had vanished and his body seemed to lose some of its tenseness.

“Okay.” His voice was unnaturally subdued. “Fine. You don’t have to tell me about … Finn … if you don’t want to. Let’s just move on then, shall we?”

“Yes.” Rey was suspicious of the laconic quality of his voice, but she felt, nonetheless, an almost palpable sense of relief. “Let’s.”

“Sure.” Ben turned to stare out of the large windows that framed the coastline of New Alderaan’s seaport. “When Phasma and Finn return, I’ll shake his hand, wish him luck in his future, and tell him that we won’t be needing his services after all.”

Welp. There went the relief.

“ _What_?” Her heart was in her throat. “But …. But he’s supposed to help me transition into this job! His contract –”

“ – Will still be honored. To the penny.” Solo clasped his hands behind his back. “I’ll even authorize a bank transfer so that he’ll receive his severance package a week earlier than expected.”

“Ben you can’t do that! It’s all over Twitter that he’s been retained for the transition team. If you toss him out now, it’ll be all over social media, and if you have the PR team ‘no comment’ all over the place, the speculation will be insane. It could affect him getting another job.”

“I can’t worry about that.” Solo pivoted from the window. “He’s resourceful and smart, and probably has a lot more friends in the Valley than we do. But we’re in uncharted territory here – at least, _I_ am. I’ve never owned a company like this before. The last thing I need is a potential conflict of interest that could come back to bite us on the ass. I may not quite understand what Chairman Snoke’s endgame is with this pattern of acquisitions, but I do know that I’m here to protect his interests – and mine.”

“How is shoving Finn out the door protecting your interests?” Rey’s voice shook with anger. “He hasn’t _done_ anything! He was fired from his own company and is still willing to help us!”

“I agree. It's admirable of him,” Solo said. “But it’s clear that the two of you have some … history. Not a positive one, either. I’m sure Finn is a very nice person, but I can’t take the chance that whatever issue you two may have or had will muck up the chairman’s timetable. We’re already in negotiations with sYnthesYs – all the dominoes have to fall just the right way and any delay or problem will _not_ make him happy. I’ve worked too hard for all this. I’m not about to crawl back to D’Qar with my tail between my legs. And I don’t think _you_ want to do that, either.”

There wasn’t a threat implicit in the words, but Rey shivered anyway. Going back to D’Qar was _not_ in her immediate plans, and Ben damn well knew that.

“Phasma and Finn will be back here any minute,” she hedged. “There isn’t enough time to go through the whole story with you.”

Solo said nothing, but took out his cell phone and scowled down it.

“Damn. You’re right – I was on data. _Shit_.”

His thumbs moved quickly over the surface of the screen, and after an ominous beep, he put the phone back into his pocket.

“All right. I’ve just sent Phasma a message to escort Finn to the boardroom after he’s done in Mission Control. I’ve sent a similar message to Hux. So we have this room for as long as we need it.”

He pulled out the chair he’d vacated and gestured for Rey to follow suit.              

Rey sighed and took a chair not quite at the opposite side. Her stomach knotted and it required several cleansing breaths to get the tension to fully disperse.

“Did … Aunt Leia ever tell you about my freshman year at N.I.T.?” Her voice was low. “Specifically, about an award I won that year?”

Ben Solo shook his head slowly. “I was in Kamino with Chairman Snoke most of the time you were in school. I didn’t talk much with my mother or your father during that time. You won an award?”

Rey flashed a quick look at him. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d called her father “Uncle Luke.” It had always been “your father” or “my uncle,” for as long as she could remember, even though Ben insisted in interviews that his mother’s twin brother was one of his earliest heroes.

“Yes. It was a pretty big deal. It’s called the Lor San Tekka Prize in Innovation. The tech schools in the country all compete for it. The way some schools recruit athletes so that they can win a championship? That’s how the big tech schools treat the LST Prize. It’s like our Super Bowl. Big trophy, tons of media coverage, a stipend for the winners and the school.”

Rey stared past Ben’s shoulder, focusing on a point in the distance.

“Every college I talked to mentioned how important it was to them. N.I.T. hadn’t won in nearly 30 years. Dr. Kanata said that if I came aboard, the university would have a good chance.”

“Dr. Kanata? Now _that_ name sounds familiar.”

“She came to D’Qar specifically to see me. She was at the Aerie,” said Rey. “Aunt Leia probably mentioned it to you. Dr. Maz Kanata is one of the foremost experts on aeronautical engineering in the country. I’ve read all her books. It was like a rock star coming to your house.”

He nodded. “Go on.”

“Well, Dr. Kanata had seen photos of some of my mechas online, and she saw a few of them in person when she came to D’Qar. She said that someone with my ability to construct things was the missing piece. There was someone already at N.I.T. who was a genius at theory and modelling but didn’t have as much build expertise as I did, and that together, we’d smoke the competition.”

“Let me guess – this, ah, genius was none other than Finn Ranger?”

“Yes. The LST is a team competition. You have to work in pairs and underclassmen work with upperclassmen. It’s a very strict rule: Juniors with freshmen and seniors with sophomores. Finn was a sophomore at the time, but he would be a junior during my freshman year, so we’d be able to work together. She gave me his email address and said that he’d be able to tell me about his ideas, his experiences in the competition, and things about N.I.T. as a whole. I emailed him one day and we sort of became penpals.”

Ben half-smiled. “Penpals? Seriously?”

“Well, at first we just sort of emailed about things going on with the LST competition,” she said. “Finn had a tough break his first two tries. His freshman year, he worked with a nice enough person, but unfortunately, his stepdad became really sick and he wasn’t able to really hold up his end of the bargain on the build part of the contest. Then the guy he worked with his sophomore year was a senior who’d fulfilled all his requirements and basically wanted Finn to do all the work while he smoked pot with his friends up on the roof of Mothma Building. I could tell that winning the prize meant a lot to him and it was fun to talk to someone around my age who was as into science and tech and engineering as I was. Pretty soon, we started talking about other subjects, too, like the college and campus and … things …”

“ _Things_ like what?”

Rey lowered her eyes. “Just … _things_. I mean, it was about the time that Dad was going through his situation with Mandy and … things were really uncomfortable at home.”

“Oh.” Solo’s voice was soft. “ _Those_ things.”

“Yeah. _Those_ things. Emailing Finn was like a breather from all the drama. He was always so positive and upbeat.” Rey’s expression softened at the memory. “I was already pretty sure that I wanted to go to N.I.T. even before meeting Finn, but talking to him for such a long time made me sure that I wanted to go there. I did a Spring visit right before graduation and we actually met, you know, in person.”

“And you hit it off?”

“Well, yes. I mean, it was a little awkward at first, but things got smoothed out in the end.”

“Why would it have been awkward?” Soo sounded puzzled. “You’d been … _penpals_ … what, a few months, at the very least, hadn’t you? I’d have thought that you would have been old friends by then.”

Rey ignored the teasing lilt in her cousin’s voice. “It’s just different when you’ve been talking to someone just online and then you meet in person for the first time. There’s always that fear that the person on the other end might not be what they said they were, or might not live up to the expectations that you’ve built up in your mind.”

“ _Did_ he meet your expectations?”

Rey had to bite the inside of her cheek to stem the mushy smile that was tugging at her lips. She and Finn had Skyped a few times, so it was not as if she had gone in blind. But she hadn’t really thought much of it. To Rey, their talks were the most important aspect of their interaction. She was a high school senior, head crammed with anxieties and fears and hopes and dreams. She’d been aware that Finn was a good-looking guy, but it was something on her periphery. His sense of humor, intelligence and kindness had been much more at the forefront.

But the day they’d met in person and she was hit with the full effect of his handsomeness? Good. _God._

“So much for that question.” The teasing lilt was back. “Did you meet _his_?”

Rey blushed to her toes. To say that Finn had not been … displeased at her appearance was an understatement. She’d been very flattered by his obvious attraction to her, especially since he was too preoccupied to notice her stumbling over every other word in the first few minutes of their initial meeting.

“ _Any_ way,” she said, pointedly ignoring Ben’s insinuating smile, “I decided to go to N.I.T. Finn and I declared our intent to compete for the LST prize, and we started work on it. His ideas were … incredible. He really _is_ a genius, Ben.”

“Oh really?”

“I’m being serious.” Her eyes were grave. “Watching Finn create is like … watching an artist. Like watching Mozart – don’t laugh! It’s true! Every tech-focused college in the nation was drooling after Finn. They knew he was something special. He’s more visionary than Jobs, more prolific than Musk, more of an actual cool human being than Zuckerberg. Whatever they’ve been making at this company, I can guarantee Finn has been at the forefront of most of it.”

“You’d be right,” agreed Solo. “Mar Vidian just cashed the checks. Most of the innovation coming out of this shop has Finn Ranger’s fingerprints all over it.”

Rey sighed. “We were such a good team. He told me about his idea for the contest. He had it all mocked up – schematics, blueprints, everything! I was … a little overwhelmed, at first, to be honest. It’s one thing to sort of mess about in the garage using bits of discarded auto parts. It’s another to build something along the lines of what _he_ had in mind.”

“What was it?”

She leaned back in her chair, having the distinct pleasure of watching her cousin’s eyes glaze over as she proceeded to tell him in minute, technical detail every inch of Finn’s idea.

“…. And so you’d be able to have one in _every_ office and it would cut down the electrical output by almost 56 percent – more if you ran it on completely on solar power.” Rey smiled at Ben’s dumbfounded look. “The best part? It was made from all recycled materials that cost less than $40 total. It was genius, Ben. And Finn had no doubt that I could build it. Even when I doubted _myself_ , he never lost faith in me.”

She slid into silence, her eyes stinging with sudden tears. Solo watched her for a moment, pretending not to notice, but finally cleared his throat.

“But he was right, wasn’t he? You could build his … invention. You _did_ build it. And you two won the contest.”

Rey shook her head very slowly.

“No. That’s not true. We didn’t win the contest.”

Ben Solo canted his head. “You told me at the start of all this that you _did_ win …?”

“Yes. But not _we_ – not Finn. _I_ won.”

“I’m not getting it. How was that even possible?”

“Simple.” Rey lifted her head and stared dully at her cousin. “I stole his idea.”


	4. (Interlude) The North Corellian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the long wait. Work and school have been kicking my ass. This is the first of two interlude chapters that sort of bracket Rey and Kylo's conversation. I am going to catch up on responses ASAP. Thanks so much for being patient with me!

Finn’s mind was spinning from the moment he stepped out of Ben Solo’s office. He walked to the East Wing barely cognizant of Phasma moving behind him, as noiseless as a shadow. Giz Sanych was there with her team, all of them looking somewhat subdued as they fiddled with their Bluetooth headsets, awaiting orders.

Giz’s face lit up at the sight of Finn, but he noticed her eyes slide over to Phasma and settle there with a squint of mistrust. Finn spoke – he was aware his mouth was moving and words were coming out – but he felt disconnected from it all, as if he were viewing the scene from outside his body. Giz’s squint moved to his face and he saw her studying him with great concern. He forced his lips into what he hoped was a reassuring smile, made a few stupid cracks that made Giz snicker.

After five minutes, she announced that the internal wi-fi had been reconfigured and would tether with any device within the building. Phasma quietly asked about a password that would prevent unauthorized access to the network. Giz gave her a scornful glance, but was mellow enough when she said she’d have a two-level authentication in place in a couple of hours that could then be deployed to _authorized_ First Order employees. Phasma looked as if she wanted to say something not altogether pleasant, but only gave another of her quick, sharp nods and retreated to the doorway.

Finn made sounds of appreciation, shaped his lips into something approximating a smile, and promised Giz he’d be down later “just to catch up.” As he followed Phasma back into the dark, silent hallway, Giz was all but forgotten as Finn gave himself up to the one word that had been throbbing in his brain like a decayed tooth.

Rey. Rey Skywalker. After all these years, there _she_ was, back in his life.

Finn didn’t like to think that his first reaction to seeing her again was that she was even more beautiful than when he’d last seen her. Her hair was shorter, not in that series of loose buns that she’d worn back at N.I.T., and she wore the sleekly tailored business suit of an upwardly mobile professional rather than the faded jeans and band T-shirts she wore while toiling away in the ironworks building behind the Quadrangle or hanging out with him at the Student Center.

But her eyes – they hadn’t changed. She still had those enchanted-princess-in-a-story-book eyes. The sort of gold-green that shouldn’t exist, but somehow did.

The corridor branched into different directions and Finn automatically turned toward the path that would take him back to Solo’s office.

Phasma’s hand descended on his shoulder just as he began to move. Her hand was just there – not digging in, not grasping – just a warm, subtle weight. Still, it made Finn stop dead in his tracks and a cold sweat gathered at the nape of his neck.

“Mr. Solo has asked that we proceed to the Freezy Flake Conference Room.” Her politely disinterested voice floated over his head. “We’ll be having breakfast there before your meeting. He and his team will join us momentarily.”

“Um, yeah.” Finn tried not to look too relieved when Phasma moved her hand away. She’d barely rested her fingertips on him and yet he still felt the pressure of her touch even when she released him.

He inclined his head toward the leftmost branch in the corridor. “We can take a shortcut here. Freezy Flake is on the other end of the East Wing.”

Phasma trailed silently in his wake as Finn gathered his thoughts. It would be fine. He could still go through his agenda for the day. If Rey – or anyone – had questions, he’d answer them. He’d be as polite as pie, but not overly familiar or friendly. Professional.

Yes – _professional._ They were paying him to do a service, and he’d give them what they were paying for, no more, no less. Rey Skywalker being in the mix was a bit of a shock, but that, too, was fine. He could be _professional_ enough to work with her. In a way, it would be easier, since he would be able to talk to her engineer-to-engineer without having to waste time explaining what were – to him – simple concepts, or, even worse, talk about how to monetize the whole thing.

Finn felt an almost palpable relief. This was fine. He could definitely keep it together. After today, it would only be five days of being around Rey Skywalker. Then after that, he’d never have to see her again, never would have to think of her storybook-eyes again, or remember that before today, the last time he’d seen them, they’d been obscured by a veil of tears, and that he’d turned his back on her before he’d had the chance to see the tears fall down her lovely face –

Finn brutally derailed that train of thought, stopping abruptly in front of a door that was slightly ajar. The light was on and Finn could discern some sort of activity going on in there. He flashed on Rey’s face again and swallowed hard.

“This is it.” Finn glanced at Phasma. “Looks like the rest of the team beat us here.”

She shook her head. “Mr. Solo will let me know when he is on his way.” She glanced at the door. “There is no sign here. How do you tell the rooms apart?”

“Uh … see this here?” Finn gestured at a stenciled outline on the door that resembled a lumpy snowman. “That’s, uh, Sorbetti.”

“Sorbetti?”

“Yeah. The, uh, boss of the Freezy Flake Galaxy.” Finn’s face warmed under Phasma’s bland gaze. “Mario has to beat him to, uh, move on in the game.”

There was a long uncomfortable silence. Finn grit his teeth. Oh well. He’d gone this far. Might as well give her the entire story.

“Vidian started planning out First Order right after Super Mario Galaxy 2 came out. He named the conference rooms after his favorite galaxies in the game. The Throwback Galaxy Conference Room is in the West Wing, and then right off the main corridor is the Flipsville Conference Room.”

Phasma blinked at him quite slowly. “I see.”

“Yeah, um … you probably wouldn’t get any complaints if you all decided to change the names. Most of us thought they were pretty stupid. Though the game itself was cool.”

Finn gave her a thready smile as he pushed the door open. Two men in starched white shirts and bow ties looked up curiously from where they were at a long table opposite the conference table arranging portable cans of sterno fuel under gleaming stainless steel chafing pans.

Finn raised an eyebrow. So this was going to be an actual _breakfast_ and not the corporate “breakfast” of stale bagels, cream cheese and jam, watered down orange juice and really bad coffee. A separate table had a coffee urn and actual cups arranged in a semicircle, with the regular accompaniments arrayed handsomely on an even smaller table nearby. The two men flashed slim, obsequious smiles and murmured that they food was on its way, but the coffee was ready and there was also a basket of herbal teas for anyone who wanted to go that route.

Finn again allowed himself to be impressed. Ben Solo was obviously going to a lot of trouble to be a good host. He decided that a cup of coffee was a necessity and filled a cup absently, staring out of the windows at the same landscape he and Slip had gazed upon the day before. Phasma was near the windows, staring impassively into the distance just as she’d done in Solo’s office. Finn wondered if Phasma’s contract prohibited her from ever sitting down. Maybe Ben Solo had some sort of dark side to him known only to his employees – and, perhaps, family members.

He sipped his coffee and took a seat at the middle of the table, musing on that last point. Finn was pretty sure that Rey had never mentioned having a wealthy, older cousin. In the early days, their discussions had mainly focused on Rey’s globetrotting father and the woman that Rey was fairly certain was going to be her stepmother.

Other than that, Finn recalled, Rey hadn’t spoken much about her family at all – and that had stunned him. Being an orphan, he assumed that those who were fortunate enough to have families _and_ be on good terms with them would talk about them all the time. But not Rey. She had mentioned an aunt in the same conversation that she’d shared with him what had happened to her mother.

Finn gnawed his lip. The aunt that Rey had mentioned was some political bigwig – a senator, maybe? –and had a kid … he had to wonder –

A buzzing in his back pocket startled him and he bit back a curse as the coffee slopped over the brim of the cup and dotted the table. Casting a quick glance at Phasma, who had not moved, Finn mopped at the spill with one hand and fished his cellphone out of his back pocket with the other. Frowning, he looked at the text notification, but relaxed a little when he saw It was from Poe.

_Hey buddy. Things going ok?_

Finn sighed. There was no real way to answer that – well, wait. Actually, maybe there was.

_Weird. Guy who bought FO is Rey Skywalker’s cousin. She’s here._

Finn hadn’t even picked up his cup again before his phone shrilled angrily.

_What?! Holy shit, are you serious?_

Finn darted a look at Phasma. It seemed to him that she was standing at more of an angle now. Keeping silent watch over him, perhaps? He didn’t feel creeped out by it as much he felt slightly intimidated and confused. Were they expecting him to do … something? If so, what? He turned back to his phone.

_Yeah. She’s taking over EmTech. She’s the main person I have to transition._

Phasma turned away from the window and walked over to the coffee station, filling a cup and stirring sugar into it. Finn felt rather than saw her gaze flick toward him, but she was as stoic as ever.

_Buddy, that’s wild af. You all right?_

Finn considered that for a moment. Poe was the only one of his friends who knew the whole story. He’d been a doctoral candidate at UY when Finn had fled there after the San Tekka Prize debacle. Unlike some of his new classmates and professors, Poe had believed his side of the story right off the bat, and they’d become instant friends.

_I’ll be fine. Just a shock. Everything’s friendly and professional rn. Gotta go, meeting soon._

_This is fucked. We’re drinking tonight_

Finn half-grinned. The lack of a question mark was not an oversight.

_Yeah, definitely. Later._

Finn silenced his phone and put it back into his pocket. Poe talked a good game, but he wasn’t much of a heavy drinker, really – Death Stars or no. They’d get some beers and Poe would probably encourage him to talk about his feelings. Of which he had none. Because he was going to be completely, 100 percent, _professional_. No problem.

Finn picked up his cup and sipped absently while scrolling through his Facebook feed and Twitter timeline. He had a few unanswered emails and a few LinkedIn connection requests. He smiled when he saw that one of them was from Slip.

A soft clinking sound caught his attention. Phasma now was back at the window, her eyes fixed on some point in the distance. Finn watched her take a measured sip of coffee and then place it back onto the saucer carefully, almost soundlessly. And it suddenly seemed unnaturally still in the room.

Finn gave a guilty glance at his phone. Right before meetings, people gathered together would usually make no small talk beyond exchanging greetings, filling up the time by focusing on their mobile devices and getting lost in apps and email. But Finn felt strange doing that when there was only him and Phasma in the room. In a crowd, you could be inconscpicuous in your anti-social behavior. But with one other person? It got to be strange and uncomfortable and a little too quiet.

Finn cleared his throat. No harm in trying to engage Phasma in some meaningless chatter, was it? Solo and everybody else would likely be there momentarily, anyway. And it might help dispel some of the awkwardness that had descended like pall right after their trip to Mission Control.

“We tried having meetings here because it’s the biggest conference room, but we started noticing that everyone would stop listening to the speaker because they were so caught up by the view. So we decided to have staff meetings over in Flipside, since it faces the parking lot.”

He looked hopefully at Phasma’s back, his smile wilting when she didn’t give any outward sign of acknowledgment. Finn’s eyes narrowed. Maybe she thought he was talking to someone on the phone? Might be a good idea to try something a bit more specific. Finn wracked his brains for something to throw out there, and his eye landed on his half-full cup.

“Nice coffee, huh? A lot better than what they’ve got in the caf. Uh … not that it’s _bad_ really. Um. The guys in the caf _are_ staying on, too, aren’t they? I think they’re a union shop, but I’m not sure …”

Finn trailed off, his forehead hot and his mouth dry. There was still not a flicker of movement from Phasma. She hadn’t even touched her coffee in the time he’d been rambling on. He gave an internal shrug. Maybe Phasma wasn’t the chit-chat type. Being in charge of security for a huge company wasn’t a cakewalk, and he had a feeling that she dealt with more than her fair share of shit being a woman in such a job. He could imagine Phasma having to build up a thick skin to deal with the bullshit. In that sense, he could commiserate. It wasn’t fun at all being the first or only anything. He knew that feeling quite well.

“I can understand.”

Finn raised his head so quickly the back of his neck cracked. Phasma was half-turned toward him. He could see her only in profile, but her head seemed to be turned just the slightest bit in his direction.

“Sorry?”

Phasma pivoted completely toward him then. “I can understand why you would avoid having serious meetings in this room.” Her eyes darted back toward the window. “It’s a very nice view – the mountains, especially. It reminds me a lot of home.”

“Home?” Finn wished he could do more than just utter one-word responses. He was caught completely off-guard by this sudden burst of sociability from Phasma. He eyed the coffee in his cup, wondering if there was something else in it other than just a hint of hazelnut.

“I, uh … didn’t realize Coruscant had mountain ranges. I’ve only been there a couple of times, but –”

“Coruscant?” Phasma half-chuckled. “I like it fine, don’t get me wrong, but _that_ isn’t _home_. I’m from the Corellian Province. North Corellia, to be exact.”

Finn nearly laughed. _Now_ things were beginning to make sense.

The Corellian Province was a hard-bitten area of the country where you had to be made of sterner stuff just to survive. In large swaths, it was a frozen wilderness, with a few cities dotted here and there. North Corellia was almost entirely a land of ice and snow, and rather like Siberia in its remoteness.

He’d known a guy at UY who’d grown up in the Corellian Province. Like Phasma, he had been big and blond and silent much of the time. He’d once told Finn that since there was hardly anyone to talk _to_ in much of the inhabited parts of the province, people tended to just not speak unless it was absolutely necessary. Conversation, he’d explained, was almost always short and to the point, since most people just wanted to get away from the elements and return to warm, comfortable confines of their homes. As such, Corellians had acquired a reputation for being taciturn and somewhat bland. Finn wasn’t sure about the “bland” part when it came to Phasma – she looked like a Viking goddess – the taciturn fit seemed to fit perfectly.

“I’ve never been to the Corellian Province. I’m not a big fan of the cold,” said Finn with what he hoped was a disarming smile. “I’m actually not a big fan of temperature extremes in either direction.”

She lifted a pale brow. “Yavin was rather hot, wasn’t it? Much less temperate than Naboo City.”

Finn’s smile vanished. He stared into his coffee cup as the sudden image of Rey Skywalker that had surfaced in his brain at the words ‘Naboo City’ was submerged by other, much-less pleasant memories of the city and of N.I.T. in particular.

He sat in the renewed silence for an unspecified time, startled when the uniformed, grinning waitstaff materialized with covered dishes that smelled of something delicious. They spoke to each other in soft undertones as they set up the breakfast, and Finn was grateful for their chatter as it allowed him a distraction from his roiling thoughts.

But he wasn't so preoccupied to notice that Phasma had reverted to her mask of icy professionalism and had turned once more to gaze silently out at the mountains.


	5. Fini (Sorry!)

Hi, all. I've been putting this off enough, but I will not be continuing this story. The events of The Last Jedi has made me gag at the words "Ben Solo" and I truly can't continue this knowing that Rey is not related to that idiot by blood.

I've run across a lot of these type notes in the past, and generally it's someone saying that they are through and thanking the readers. I want to do that, but I also wanted to let you all know what this story was going to be, and the resolution. I know it's not the same as having the story written out, but I hope it satisfies some curiosities.

* * *

 

The backstory between Rey and Finn was to be told to BS by Rey. Basically, Rey and Finn were very much in love and an odds-on favorite to win the Lor San Tekka Prize. But Finn is then accused by the dean of the school of engineering, Unkar Plutt, of breaking into his office and stealing the plans of other LST entries to sell them on the open market. Finn is poor, and an orphan, and he had talked to Rey about needing to raise money for an engineering summer program he wanted to go to. Maz Kanata says that Finn was with her at the time of the burglary but no one believes her. Since it's her word against that of a security guard who positively IDs Finn, there's a stalemate. Plutt threatens to expel Finn and Rey and tells Finn he'll not do so if he voluntarily withdraws from the competition. Finn does so to save Rey from being kicked out of school, and Plutt lies to Rey that Finn's idea was still admissable for the competition, pairs her with another partner, and when they win the prize, Finn's name is not even mentioned. Finn, who was humiliated by the whole situation and branded a thief on campus and now having to deal with the knowledge that he won't even get credit for his own idea, transfers to the University of Yavin. By this time, Rey realizes Plutt lied to her and that he is the one who staged the break in. Plutt is a racist, who disliked the idea of Finn and Rey romantically involved, but he knew that their entry had a good chance to win the LST Prize and so he staged the break in to discredit Finn.

At the same time Rey is explaining all of this to BS, Hux is mentioning to Finn that "Chairman Snoke" bought First Order as a favor to BS because of "family issues." Finn finds out that BS's mother, a popular senator, had been exploring a run for president, but a tabloid reporter dug up the autopsy reports of her husband and sister-in-law, Rey's mother, that highly suggested that the car accident that killed them happened because they were engaged in a "sexual act" at the time. It's suggested that Senator Organa and her brother, Luke Skywalker, were aware of this at the time of their spouses' deaths, but paid to hush it up to protect their children. Hux says Ben found out about his father and aunt's infidelity but agreed to keep it from Rey, but that earlier that year, the story hit the press and Rey went into an intense depression over it. Snoke bought First Order ostensibly after BS begs him to help him pull his cousin out her depression.

(Finn and Rey later find out that the entire story is a lie. Han Solo and Mara Jade Skywalker were not lovers and their accident was not happening because she was blowing him on the road or whatever. The story was planted by Snoke himself and he got Hux to spread it so that he could have BS even more under his thumb.)

So with that backdrop, Finn prepares to serve out the week that is part of the buyout deal. It's rocky between him and Rey at first because he's not warming to her and she's being pushed to assert her authority. She does hire back a number of engineers that he suggests, including Slip who was about to get kicked out of his apartment for not having the rent. Rey tells Finn that she saw Slip's record and wasn't impressed but figured he recommended him for a reason and so decided to give him a chance.

Over the next few days, Finn and Rey warm to each other and realize there are still feelings there. She admits to him that when she realized Plutt had set him up, she'd gone straight to his apartment to tell him but was blocked from seeing him by his roommates, and then he transferred and refused to interact with her. Finn tells her he knows the situation about her mother, and is sorry, and she breaks down. They end up sleeping together in Rey's hotel room.

In the morning, Rey's cell is ringing off the hook. It's BS. Someone had unauthorized access to the First Order computers where some of the proprietary information was kept, and the safe where certain prototype experiments were kept had been rifled and several things stolen. BS is thinking it's Finn, getting revenge on Rey for the LST stuff and also angry because he was fired. Rey informs her cousin that Finn couldn't have done it since during the time of the intrusion, Finn was fucking her brains out. Finn is wondering if this is going to be the LST debacle all over again, but he looks through the logs and realizes that there was an incursion, but that it was done somewhat well enough that it almost wasn't registered. Someone had his moves down but couldn't keep up the pretense at the end. He realizes it must have been Slip. He can't think of why Slip would stab him in the back that way and he wants to talk to him before turning him over to BS and the authorities. He goes to Slip's apartment to confront him and finds him hanging in his bedroom with a scrawled "I'm sorry" note next to him. He calls the police who rule it a suicide initially. But after talking to Slip's neighbors, who say they heard Slip arguing with someone and then screaming as if in pain, police do an autopsy and find that Slip's neck was broken beforehand and that the suicide was staged. Finn is arrested for the murder since police find out he knew Slip was responsible for the First Order data incursion and went to his apartment.

Rey breaks from her cousin, who believes Finn to be guilty of the incursion and Slip's murder, figuring Finn put Slip up to trying to break into the system, and then killed him when it didn't work. She moves into Finn's apartment and Finn hires Kare Kun, a talented lawyer who gets him out on bail. Finn and Rey go over the situation, and realize that Slip had access all along, and only made it look like someone was trying to access it illegally. Finn and Rey try to figure out how and why Slip would break into a databank that he would have had access to anyway. Finn mentions to Rey that there was a project that he had been keeping secret, but that he had included in the disclosure papers after the buyout. It seemed that Slip had found out about that secret project and was looking to sell the schematics, and thought about the plan to cover his tracks. Finn realizes, though, that Slip wouldn't have implicated him. He would have chosen someone else. So whoever killed him also wanted him out of the way for whatever reason.

The two of them go to Slip's neighbors, who aren't helpful, but they run into Nines, Slip's ex-roommate and an ex-First Order engineer. He tells them he had come to Slip's that evening to pick up some things he left behind when he moved out of their apartment. He said he overheard Slip speaking with someone and decided to come back later. He couldn't tell who the other speaker was, and he said he didn't hear any screaming from Slip but something more like a strange whistle like noise. When Finn hears this, he realizes what has happened. He goes to the police, with Rey and his lawyer and has an urgent conversation with them, saying that the key to Slip's murder was in his flat. The police are skeptical, but go to Slip's apartment and are initially suspicious about finding exactly what Finn said they'd find. But they agree to let him set a trap for the murderer, which he does with Rey's help when she goes to BS and says she's back onboard. Police are going to make an arrest of Slip's actual murderer and Finn has agreed to depart without his severance pay as long as he can download some of his personal papers that night. Hux is angry but BS is more relieved that Rey has "seen reason" and agrees, but says that security cameras must be on at all times. She says that is fine but that the fact that there are cameras must be kept secret, only she, Hux, and BS can know. BS agrees.

That night, in a darkened office, a figure is working at a terminal. A door opens and closes. Seconds later, there is the sound of a silenced gun firing into the figure at the computer, which slumps over. The killer goes to check, and the lights flick on. Finn is standing to the side unhurt. He congratulates Phasma on playing an almost flawless game. It was Phasma who got into Slip's head, ginning up Slip's hatred of First Order in general. And it was Phasma who saw the secret project in the disclosure papers and told Slip that the tech rightfully belonged to Finn and that if he were to take it, he and Finn could start their own company and she, Phasma, would come too. She got Slip onboard promising him money to make the theft. But Slip realized partway through the operation that Finn would be blamed for the incursion and cut it off, taking the prototype of the secret project from the safe, along with some other things, and storing them in his apartment.

What Phasma didn't know, Finn says, is that he'd told Slip a while ago about the LST Prize debacle. So Slip knew exactly what he was taking when he stole the secret project. And when she arrived at his apartment not to offer him more money but to kill him, he tried to use the secret project to save his life.

Phasma admits to it all. She says Chairman Snoke wants to build the ultimate tracking weapon and that First Order had the tech to do it. Finn had to be gotten out of the way because he was one of the few people who would eventually have been able to figure out what Snoke was doing with the tech companies he was acquiring. She hints that Rey might have been another person to figure it out and that she would have been "gotten out of the way" too. She then taunts Finn, saying she had almost convinced Slip to kill him, but chickened out at the last minute. He was weak and a fool and whined like an idiot at the very end. She raises the gun, ready to shoot.

And Finn opens his mouth and utters a high-pitched whine. Phasma hesitates a moment because it's very much like the sound Slip was making before she killed him. There is a blur and through the door burst a little white and orange ball. Before Phasma can react, the ball tases her and she falls to the ground immobilized. Police, Rey, BS, and others rush in. They arrest Phasma, having gotten her confession on the security cameras that had been turned on. Finn explains that it was actually in front of him the whole time. Phasma, as head of security, who would have had access to Slip's personnel files and targeted him as someone who was a borderline worker and likely deep in debt. He was susceptible, and possibly even believed that the tech he had worked on with Finn was theirs for the taking. And that when Nines told him and Rey that he heard Slip not scream but make a whistling sound, he knew that Slip had to have had the Best Buddy prototype that had been stolen from the safe. Finn said he talked with Slip while drafting the schematics about his idea, including adding a way in which to communicate with the droid in case of emergencies. Slip had been trying to mimic the sounds that would have wakened the droid and sent it to his aid, but he was either too addled or too frightened to do it correctly, so Phasma was able to kill him. But, Finn states, he'd been living with this idea for more than six years, and he looks at Rey.

Rey is crying. The Best Buddy prototype was their LST entry. And the innovation that they'd been planning to add, per the contest rules, was speech. They'd made up a language for it, called Binary. She's amazed that Finn not only remembered but built a better version of their original idea and remembered Binary, as well. He reminds her of how it took them seven tries to get it right, and that this prototype was called BB-8 because it was the eight version. He also tells her that there are papers that stated that if the Better Buddy unit ever went into mass production, First Order was to find her wherever she was in the world and give her credit for the creation of Binary. Finn tells her that every time he looked at BB-8, he thought of her, and he realized he'd never stopped loving her and never really blamed her for his disgrace. They kiss and BB-8 chirps happily in the background.

In the Epilogue, we find out that the Han Solo/Mara Jade stuff was a lie and Hux is disbarred. Finn sues Galactic Empire and bankrupts Snoke. He then buys First Order outright. He and Rey, who are now engaged, are renaming it Finnrey Incorporated, and they already have BB-8 models in mass production as health and safety aides that can fit in the boot of a car and can be deployed in case of emergency. They create an app that translates any language to Binary and also create a device people can wear to summon their BB-8 units to them in case of extreme emergencies. BB-8s can change flat tires, create fires in case of being stuck in the cold, render medical first aid, contact authorities, and yes, tase intruders or attackers. Finn and Rey are hailed as the next great innovators, and all is well.

Thank you for reading all of this, and thank you to everyone who read the first four chapters. I am hoping to rebound with another multichapter story taking into account the "canon" given in The Last Jedi.


End file.
